Surah Al Qasas Tafseer

And said one of them:"O my father! Hire him! Verily, the best of men for you to hire is the strong, the trustworthy."

One of the two daughters of the man said this, and it was said that she was the one who had walked behind Musa, peace be upon him. She said to her father:

يَا أَبَتِ اسْتَأْجِرْهُ

(O my father! Hire him!) as a shepherd to look after the sheep.

Umar, Ibn Abbas, Shurayh Al-Qadi, Abu Malik, Qatadah, Muhammad bin Ishaq and others said:

"When she said:

إِنَّ خَيْرَ مَنِ اسْتَأْجَرْتَ الْقَوِيُّ الاَْمِينُ

(Verily, the best of men for you to hire is the strong, the trustworthy), her father said to her, `What do you know about that?'

She said to him, `He lifted a rock which could only be lifted by ten men, and when I came back with him, I walked ahead of him, but he said to me, walk behind me, and if I get confused about the route, throw a pebble so that I will know which way to go."'

Abdullah (Ibn Mas`ud) said,

"The people who had the most discernment were three:

Abu Bakr's intuition about Umar;

the companion of Yusuf when he said, `Make his stay comfortable'; and

the companion of Musa, when she said:

يَا أَبَتِ اسْتَأْجِرْهُ إِنَّ خَيْرَ مَنِ اسْتَأْجَرْتَ الْقَوِيُّ الاْاَمِينُ

(O my father! Hire him! Verily, the best of men for you to hire is the strong, the trustworthy)."